Chapter 13
THIRTEEN
Walker
“What are you doing here this morning?” Eden asked as I stood in the doorway of her office in our corporate building.
She was dressed in a black suit, black nails paused on the keys of her keyboard as she looked at me. Hair and makeup—perfect.
So clean and put together, unlike me.
I hadn’t gone to bed yet.
I hadn’t even showered this morning.
There was a film of whiskey on my tongue, and I wished there were a tumbler of it in my hand, but I’d left it in the back seat of my SUV while my driver waited for me in the company’s garage.
I had known my siblings would give me endless shit if I was drinking in the office before nine in the morning.
“I need to talk to you,” I said to her.
She pulled her hands back and set them in her lap. “Okay.”
“Not just you. I think I should talk to all of you.”
“Beck isn’t here. As you know, he’s in Canada all week with the team. If he’s not tied up with working out or at practice, I’m sure we can conference him in.” She lifted her phone off her desk and hit the screen several times.
“Round everyone up. I’ll meet you in the conference room.” I released the frame around her door and made my way down the hall.
Once I took a seat at the table, my hands flattened against the thick wood, and I rubbed my palms across the shiny surface, my head pushing against the top of the chair.
The chair didn’t bounce like the one in my office at Charred; it was too stiff for my liking.
Shit, I’d rather be standing or sprawled out on a couch; the whole setting of the office didn’t jibe with me.
Neither did the accomplishments that were hanging on the walls in here.
I had been so deep into work that I barely remembered when these framed articles had been written or when I’d shaken hands with royalty or when we’d won foodie awards.
“Walker, my man,” Hart said as he walked in, eyes the same color as mine, but his were much clearer and far less red. “I didn’t expect you to come in today.”
I pounded his fist before he took a seat further down the table. “I didn’t expect my ass to be here today either.”
“Glad you are, buddy.” Colson clasped my shoulder and sat across from Hart. “Although I wouldn’t have hated it if you’d cleaned yourself up a little.” He chuckled. “Hit the bottle a bit too hard last night?”
“Last night?” I challenged. “Fuck, try this morning.”
“Damn,” Colson groaned.
Eden was the last to enter. She sat directly next to me, reaching for the phone in the center of the table, and pressed one of the buttons. “Beck, are you there?”
“I’m here,” Beck said, his voice coming through the speaker. “Hey, fam.”
All eyes were now on me.
I’d debated hard about whether I should even bring this to my family’s attention or just address it with Eden.
Ultimately, it was something they all needed to hear, even if I didn’t want to say a goddamn word.
“I’ll spare your ears the details.” I looked at Eden despite her and Colson already knowing this part. “But during my short time off, I hooked up with a woman I’d met on Hooked.”
“Hell yes!” Beck shouted. “I like the direction this conversation is going.”
“You won’t once I continue.” I set my elbows on the table, my fingers shooting through the sides of my hair. “Last night, as I was finishing up in the kitchen at Charred, guess who walked through.”
“Don’t even tell me … she’s stalking you?” Hart’s brows shot up high.
“Nah. Nothing like that.” I looked at each of their faces. “It’s worse.” I took a breath. “Alivia is her name, and”—why the fuck did my chest feel so tight?—“she works at Charred. She’s a food runner and water girl.”
“Fuuuck,” Beck moaned.
“I didn’t see that coming,” Eden admitted, pushing her dark hair off her shoulders. “But hold on a second. When you two hooked up, you didn’t recognize her from the restaurant?”
“Yesterday was only her second shift,” I explained. “I wasn’t there the evening of her first shift. And she was hired before anything happened between us.”
Eden swung her head with each point I made. “All right, that makes it a tad better, but when you did meet, she didn’t know who you were?”
I had known I was going to be hit with questions. There was no way my siblings weren’t going to drill me about this scenario.
I crossed my arms. “No.”
“I find that hard to believe,” Beck said. “Your face is fucking everywhere, Walker. She works in the restaurant business. How did she not know it was you?”
“I’m not going to get into details about that. She explained how she didn’t know, and I believe her.” I released a long breath. “Why I came to you guys is because I don’t know what the fuck to do. That’s what I want to talk about.”
“You don’t know what to do …” Hart’s head was shaking, and it stilled. “What are you struggling with?”
“Her future with The Weston Group,” I voiced.
“There is no future for her here,” Hart shot back. “You need to write her a big parting check and let her go. You know this goes against the rules of the company.”
“Fuck that. There has to be another option,” I countered.
Hart’s hand went to the table, and he leaned into the edge of it. “You’re telling me you want her to stay employed?”
The conversation I’d had with Alivia last night was too fresh in my mind.
Her words fucking haunting me.
I nodded at Hart. “I’m telling you, she shouldn’t be punished and lose her job for something that neither of us knew about.”
Colson broke several seconds of silence with, “Do you want to be with her?” He was playing with the collar of his light-pink polo shirt.
I uncrossed my arms to wave the air. “That’s irrelevant.”
“No, it’s not, brother.” Colson huffed. “It’s extremely relevant.”
I looked away from him and focused on Eden. “What I want to know is what I’m facing legally. With my signature across a nonfraternization policy, how fucked am I right now?”
Our entire executive team had signed one. From a corporate standpoint, we didn’t want there to be any issues with hierarchy or balances of power. And even though my sister wasn’t an attorney, she was well versed on these kinds of things.
“This is a gray area,” she began. “There was no way you could have known she was an employee of The Weston Group when things happened between you two. In a sense, that’s somewhat grandfathered you in—that is, if things ever progress forward.
However, she has free rein to discuss things with her coworkers, and I can’t predict what kind of storm that would start. ”
“A legal storm, you mean?” I clarified.
“Not legally.” She was holding a pen and tapped it on the table. “I just mean, our employees would love to catch a whiff of drama that’s this spicy, especially considering it involves one of their bosses.”
I nodded.
“She can sign an NDA,” Colson offered.
“That might not be a bad idea,” Eden added. “It protects you. It protects us.”
Something she’d already offered to do, but I didn’t tell them that.
“Is she working tonight?” Hart asked. When my face told him she was, he continued, “Dude, she’s going to blast that shit all over the fucking restaurant.”
“Jesus Christ,” Beck moaned. “Walker, you don’t want that.”
“I don’t think she will …” I put my hands behind my head. “I don’t think she’s like that.”
“You don’t even fucking know her,” Hart said. “How the hell can you say that?”
My eyes narrowed in on him. My fingers were twitchy, and it wasn’t the booze that made me want to throw something. “It’s a feeling I have.”
Hart smirked. “Did you have that same feeling before you drank your breakfast?”
“What the fuck are you trying to say?” I sat up straight, my shoulders automatically going back.
He put his hands in the air. “I just want to know if your opinion would be the same if you were sober.”
“I’m sober enough.”
“Whatever you say, brother.” Hart shook his head.
“Boys, since there are a few different ways this can play out, let’s think this through,” Eden said. “She can tell another employee at Charred, and word will spread. She can go to the media and tip them off. She—”
“Or she could say nothing,” I growled.
She put her hand on mine. “If the whole staff of the restaurant knew you two had slept together, it could possibly affect morale. It would most certainly stir things up. But it wouldn’t be the end of the world.
As for the media, they would have fun with that kind of news, but again, there’s nothing technically wrong with what you two did.
” She paused. “I suppose it comes down to you, Walker. If she talks, it won’t hurt the company per se.
But would it hurt you? Of course, there are different levels of hurt, and those you’ll have to weigh. ”
“She needs to sign an NDA. I don’t even know why we’re discussing this,” Hart offered. “Colson, tell me you don’t agree with this nonsense?”
Colson’s exhale was loud. “I would probably go in the NDA direction just to avoid any messiness.”
“Beck?” Hart said. “How about you?”
“I’m the fucking king of messy. Look at the woman I’m in love with.” Beck laughed. “I support whatever decision you make, Walker.”
“Eden?” Hart said. “You’re up.”
Eden’s eyes wouldn’t leave mine. The way they were on me told me they were looking right through me. “If you think she won’t say anything—and you’re okay if she does—then I support your decision.”
“Why the fuck would you even risk it?” Hart asked. “What’s the big deal by asking her to sign one?”
In my mind, this wasn’t about whether she’d sign one or not. I already knew she would.
But if we had that document between us, it would feel like what had gone down in my suite was a goddamn transaction. A bunch of legal jargon that would cheapen our time together.
And the way she had given me her body, the things I had done to it, the hours we’d spent talking—none of that was cheap.
It was fucking perfect.
“If I change my mind, I’ll have the attorney draw something up,” I told everyone.
“What about her job at Charred?” Beck asked. “Where do we all stand on that?”
“We can’t fire someone for having relations with an owner,” Eden explained. “That would cause a media storm.”
Hart rolled his eyes. “So, you’re saying until she fucks up, she stays put?”
I whipped my head toward him. “Until she fucks up? What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Why are you sticking up for her, Walker?” The longer Hart stared at me, the softer his eyes became. “Ah, I see why. It wasn’t just a hookup, was it? You’ve got a thing for this woman.”
“You see nothing.” I turned my focus to Eden and said, “I’ll let you know about the NDA,” and I got up and walked out.
Me
You can come in for your shift tonight.
TheSkyIsn’tMyLimit
You’re saying I still have a job?
Me
Yes.
TheSkyIsn’tMyLimit
I appreciate that, Walker. I hope you know that.
Me
Well, I would appreciate it if you continued to keep things between us.
TheSkyIsn’tMyLimit
You have my word.
And thank you for the steak. Aside from the pizza, it was the best meal I’d ever had.
“Hey, Chef. I have an extremely important party of twelve in the private dining room, and they’re asking if you’ll make your famous scallops,” Hilary said from the other side of the prep station.
She was too short to see through the opening between the shelves, so I ducked my head to get a better angle, and I glared at her. I knew that voice without even seeing her face because she was endlessly fucking asking for something. “How in the hell do they know about my diver scallops?”
They weren’t on the menu.
But every other day, when the food deliveries came in, we got a shipment, per my request. Somehow, they were always eaten, whether the cooking staff prepared them for themselves or word spread that we kept them in stock or our waitstaff accidentally or purposefully dropped that bomb to our guests.
However, never did we get a specific request for me to make them.
In the past, I had willingly prepared them. More recently, that was a task I’d been assigning to my sous chef.
“Keith will make them,” I told her.
“You really want to give an important party my scallops?” Keith asked from behind me, standing at the gas range, obviously hearing our conversation.
I turned to look at him. “Why wouldn’t I?”
“You know I have a love-hate relationship with those things. And no matter what I do, they’ll never taste as good as yours.”
I looked at Hilary. “Keith’s will be good enough.”
“Chef, they’re for James Ryne-Young,” Hilary said. “You know, the hottest actress in Hollywood? She’s here with her husband, Brett, and ten of their A-list friends. She specifically asked if you were here and if you would make them. And if you would deliver them. I guess she wants to talk to you.”
Every time the word you came out of her mouth, my nerves peaked a little higher.
I clenched my fingers together. “You told her I was here?”
Hilary shrugged. “I didn’t know it was a secret.”
“Next time, don’t assume anything about me is public knowledge. Got it?”
Her eyes widened, and she stopped blinking. “I’m sorry.”
Goddamn it.
Hilary and her big fucking mouth.
I glanced at the gas range, the stack of clean pans to the right, the different bottles of oil and containers of fats to the left. An area of the kitchen that used to feel like home. Where I could whip up several dozen scallops in less than ten minutes.
Now the sight made my stomach churn.
The acid in my chest was as strong as the fire that licked the underside of the metal burner grates.
James Ryne-Young wasn’t going to enjoy Keith’s scallops.
Because he was right; they had nothing on mine.
Fuck me.
As I turned toward Hilary to really chew her ass out, I caught sight of Alivia. She was approaching the prep station with an empty tray that she was going to fill with more plates. Tonight was so busy; the majority of her time had been spent running food.
I knew.
Since I couldn’t keep my eyes off her.
She was just so fucking beautiful.
With those gorgeous blue eyes.
The freckles that sat beneath them and across her nose.
And those lips.
I needed a drink.
I needed one now.
I dragged my stare away from her and looked at Hilary, my teeth grinding together. “Go tend to your other tables. I’ll fucking deal with this.”